Shell Game, page 20
part #15 of The Last Hunter Series
Patrick ignored Garibaldi and repeated the process with Governor Albertson. She jerked back just as violently, so Lisa was pretty certain that whatever it was that was broken under her nose smelled really bad. Unlike her companion, she didn’t say anything.
Patrick stepped back and looked over the two of them with a genial smile. “I hope the two of you slept well because we’ve got a busy day ahead of us.”
“Who are you, and what are you doing in my quarters?” Garibaldi demanded.
“What makes you think you’re in your own quarters? If you’ll take a moment to glance around, I think you’ll rapidly come to the conclusion that you are not. If you’re holding out some forlorn hope that your guards will burst in to save you at the last moment, I’m afraid those sentiments are misplaced. As for who I am, I’m afraid that’s for me to know and you to guess at. Insofar as what we’re doing, I should think that’s obvious. We have questions that you are going to answer for us.”
“I’m not going to tell you anything. Release us at once, or you will regret the day you were born.”
Lisa was impressed at how well the man kept up his obnoxious personality in the face of what had to be a terrifying situation. It wasn’t going to do him any good—it might literally hurt him in the short term—but that wasn’t her problem.
Patrick had an air about him that told anyone that knew what to look for that he wouldn’t be taking much crap from anyone. He was in control, and he would use that ruthlessly to his advantage.
Do you think she believes that someone who is capable of breaking into Garibaldi’s home and kidnapping the two of them won’t know who she is? Surely, her image is well-known in the system.
I’m not an expert when it comes to interrogation, so I don’t know which is the best approach to take. That’s where Patrick will have his opportunity to shine.
Patrick had spent the last few seconds smiling at Garibaldi. “Oh, I don’t believe it will be too difficult to get the information we want from you. Undoubtedly, you’re concerned about the methods we intend to use to make that happen. Allow me to assure you that we won’t do anything as crude as pulling your fingernails out. Trust me when I say that that’s both agonizing and relatively useless when it comes to gaining truthful and complete answers. Torture is the tool of a bully. A professional has many other options at their beck and call. Options that will get them what they need with a minimum of fuss or time expended.”
The assassin walked around the two and paused to put a hand on Garibaldi’s shoulder, then the other on Albertson’s. “The three of us—actually, the four of us, including my friend—have a lot to discuss, and I believe it would be incumbent upon me to emphasize just how precarious your situation is. We need answers to a number of very serious questions. So long as you cooperate, you won’t experience any discomfort. If you attempt to lie to us, then things will… get a little dicier.”
“And what will you do once you’re finished questioning us?” Albertson asked quietly. “You can’t possibly believe that an attack on the highest levels of government will go unanswered. It’s not like you have a place to run to. No matter what happens to us, there will be a search for who is responsible, and I don’t believe you’ll like how that turns out for you. Allow me to offer you an alternative. If you release us, I’ll take the death penalty off the table.”
Patrick smiled and looked over at Lisa. “What do you think, my dear? Should we go light on them simply because they might kill us if we don’t?”
It was Lisa’s turn to laugh. “I have no doubt that we would be imprisoned by the secret police at a minimum. Death might be preferable. I’m afraid that the Poseidon Group doesn’t have a reputation for being trustworthy or of good character. They’re going to do exactly what they want to do, no matter what they promise. I think we should continue on with our plan as we discussed.”
“And so we shall,” Patrick said. “I’m relatively confident that the two of you have done many things that are worthy of the death penalty, even discounting the fact that you are traitors, and that’s what’s called for. It probably won’t take too much effort on our part to uncover enough to salve our consciences. I do appreciate you not pretending to be someone you’re not, Governor Albertson. That type of subterfuge is beneath you.”
“From what I’m hearing, it sounds like you’ve already decided our fates,” the woman said. “I want to live, and I’m willing to cooperate to make that happen.”
Lisa considered that and wondered if it was worthwhile believing her. Someone who was going to answer their questions thoroughly and in detail might be better than dealing with someone like Garibaldi, who mechanically answered questions but had no initiative to fill in the blanks. If they could believe her.
“Actually, if she’s willing to be completely honest and not conceal things, I’m willing to consider that,” Lisa said. “With the understanding that if she does lie or attempt to conceal information from us, that would void the agreement. It also doesn’t apply to Garibaldi. As the head of the secret police, I’m quite confident his hands are significantly dirtier than hers, at least when it comes to doing direct harm.”
Patrick raised an eyebrow. “And you think he did so without her orders? Her hands—as neatly manicured as they are—are undoubtedly covered with just as much blood.”
“Do you think she’s going to escape in the long run? I believe we’ve demonstrated that we can get to anyone we wish, and if we decide to come after her again, there is very little she can do to stop us. Let her live in fear of when we might show up next. Let her worry about what we might do if she crosses that invisible line where it’s too much for us to allow her to continue.”
Patrick laughed. “I do believe you’re getting the hang of this. What about Garibaldi?”
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not sitting right here,” he snarled. “My people will hunt you down and flay the skin from your bodies before they throw you out an airlock.”
Albertson shook her head as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing, but she didn’t say a word. Lisa wondered what she saw in the man. Not only was he physically unattractive, but he also had the kind of personality that grated on one’s sensibilities. She supposed there was no accounting for taste.
“And that’s the kind of talk that gets one killed,” Patrick said genially. “Honestly, I’m glad you’re being so uncooperative. It’s going to make what happens to you a lot easier for my associate to handle. Now, shall we begin?”
The question was directed at Lisa rather than the prisoners, and she nodded. “Time’s wasting. Let’s see what we can find out.”
27
Derek landed the cutter and slipped out of the pilot’s compartment before anyone might have an opportunity to see who’d been flying the craft. It would’ve been better if Vassen could have done so, but he didn’t trust the young officer’s skills when it came to that. He didn’t have enough experience and wouldn’t for a few years.
Vassen was waiting for him by the hatch, already having been coached on how Derek thought things were going to play out. Unfortunately, the situation would be fluid, and there was no telling exactly what they’d be called upon to do or say. It was a good thing that Vassen was supposed to be an officer from a different ship. That way, he could be forgiven for not recognizing the people he was interacting with, if he was interacting with any of them at all.
The same would be true of the officers aboard the ship. They wouldn’t know Vassen by sight, but the fact that he was a Tardan meant that his presence would go unquestioned. After all, how would a new Tardan suddenly show up inside their organization?
He’d already unpacked the sabotage drones and had pre-positioned them in a small maintenance area that also had access to the outside of the cutter. Basically, it was a miniature airlock meant to get tools or parts to someone outside the cutter while it was in vacuum. That would allow whoever was inside to assist the people on the outside if needed. It also gave the opportunity for people on the outside to pass in necessary supplies if there was some kind of mechanical failure or accident.
The little devices were more than capable of opening the hatch themselves and scuttling out to perform their duties. It opened on the bottom of the cutter, and they would likely go unobserved in the shadows. He had a handheld device in his pocket that he could use to signal them to begin, and he would do so once they left the area. Before that, they had to be accepted by their new hosts.
At his nod, Vassen hit the controls, then the hatch slid open and a short ramp extended. He walked down, resisting the urge to look around as the two of them reached the deck of the landing bay. Another Tardan was standing there waiting. From the looks of it, the woman was about the same rank as Vassen, though slightly elevated. Good. It didn’t look like they would receive a high-ranking minder, and that was perfect.
“Welcome aboard Grasping Fist, Junior Lieutenant Andrus,” the woman said slowly. Slowly enough that it was obvious that she didn’t expect him to have a very good grasp of their language. That made perfect sense since the only reason they’d been able to get a completely fluent version for the sleep learning chips had been because Lisa and Regex had melded. Only once Lisa achieved complete fluency could she create a chip that the rest of them could use.
The kingdom wouldn’t have had that opportunity. They’d have had to learn the language bit by bit, though they’d probably had an advantage because they had been dealing with the Novarites over a long period of time. The two groups hadn’t always been at war, and there were probably some inside the kingdom that had achieved basic fluency, which was what Derek was going to have to emulate. If he spoke the language too well, it would stand out as unusual, and he couldn’t afford that kind of attention.
“A pleasure,” he said in just as slow a tone, making sure to roughen his accent. “What now?”
He figured the least he could get away with saying, the better the opportunity that he wouldn’t be noted as being different than other kingdom officers. Hopefully, he was only here to be an observer of what was going on rather than an active participant. If he had to speak to a group of Tardans, the chances of him being detected rose substantially.
“The briefing will get underway shortly,” the female officer said. “I am to escort you and your minder to the briefing room, where the two of you will sit together. Only once the briefing is complete will you be allowed to return to your ship.”
He nodded his head. “Good. I comply.”
She gestured for the two of them to follow her and strode off toward the large hatch leading out at the landing bay. He slid his hand into his pocket as he started forward and triggered the signal that would get the sabotage drones to move. Based on the way they worked, he expected they would exit the cutter, pay attention to who might be in the general area, and avoid them on their way to the bulkheads at the edges of the compartment.
Once they got there, they would find air vents or maintenance accessways to infiltrate the rest of the ship and begin putting themselves in critical locations where they could perform their duties when he signaled them to begin.
Admiral Romanoff and the fighters would be ready to leap into action once he started this operation, but he had to have a clear opportunity to get to the area where the master control codes would be kept. If it was like the last flagship they’d dealt with, the admiral would have the setup in his office adjacent to the bridge.
No one started shouting before they got out of the landing bay, so it seemed that the sabotage drones had escaped notice. That was one big worry off of his back as they exited the landing bay and stepped into a large corridor. It was truly odd walking through a ship manned by Tardans because even though he’d interfaced with a number of them before, it hadn’t been in a setting like this. These Tardans were enemies, whereas the others had been civilians who’d been betrayed by their own military.
The civilian Tardans were setting themselves up on a world inside the cluster, and it certainly looked as if they were going to work hard at becoming good members of the Confederation. As refugees who had fled oppression, they had a drive to fit in, and humanity had been better to them than the Tardan military had been to the Confederation.
They entered a lift and went down several levels before exiting into a corridor very much like the one they’d been in before. Another few minutes of walking brought them to a large hatch with two muscular Tardans standing outside it. They were armed with rifles and wore body armor, so they had to be the equivalent of Confederation Marines.
The compartment they stepped into was indeed a large briefing room. There was a table set off to one side and arena-style seating on the other. That would allow people sitting in the rows to have a good view of what was going on at the table without the person in front of them blocking their sight.
About a third of the seats were already occupied by various Tardan officers, and he expected them to be placed somewhere toward the rear as they were lower ranking, but the woman led them to the front row and pointed to seats off to the far right. Once they had seated themselves, she sat on the other side of Vassen. That would inhibit their ability to communicate with one another, but there were too many enemies around them to risk something like that anyway.
Over the next fifteen minutes, more and more personnel continued flowing into the room until the seats off to the side of the table were fully occupied. Only once that was accomplished did another door in the compartment open, and some very senior officers began walking in to sit at the table.
Derek looked over each of the officers as they came in and didn’t see anyone below the rank of captain. That said, those captains were in the minority as the majority of the people seated around the table were flag officers. The most senior ranking of them sat at the head of the table.
It was interesting that no one had risen when the senior officers entered the compartment. He’d almost done so on his own before he’d caught himself. If that wasn’t how the Tardans behaved, his standing up would draw way more attention to him than he wanted. It might be natural for a kingdom officer to stand when a superior entered the compartment, but Tardans were running the show here.
The Tardan at the head of the table rapped his knuckles against the table and spoke in a voice that sounded far deeper than his body should’ve produced. “I greet you all and welcome you to Grasping Fist. As you were informed, we are beginning our deployment along the third major gate pathway inside human space. This rotation was previously planned, and our forces that have returned from their patrol didn’t discover anything unusual during their exploration. There was some scattered resistance, but it was easily dealt with and thus posed no threat to our continued operations.”
Derek kept his face impassive, but inside, he was frowning. What did that mean? Was the senior leadership of the invasion going on a patrol? That didn’t sound right, but he didn’t really understand how the Tardan military worked. Maybe that was standard procedure. After all, Admiral Romanoff had continued taking his ship on patrol even after they had other options. As strange as it might feel, that didn’t mean that this was something to worry about.
The senior officer brought up a map of the Confederation on the screen behind the table and walked over with a long pointer. “As our navigating team already is aware, the third gateway path runs from this system along this particular line of gates to one of the periphery areas the humans occupy.”
The map looked like an image taken from a paper map and showed the complexity of the Confederation gate network, though only in two dimensions. As a navigator himself, he knew that there were other aspects to the network that were being pointed out, but they weren’t relevant unless one actually had to utilize that data.
They weren’t going along the path toward Earth. In fact, they were veering off a good distance to one side and going through quite a few systems that were on the opposite side of the Confederation from the cluster. From what he knew of the network in that direction, it would be easy enough to go out almost the entire length of the Confederation and then come back along a parallel path that would bring them back to DuPont.
This group of ships wasn’t going to be an immediate threat to the Confederation. Not in the same way the one going toward Earth would be. Maybe if they were lucky, the Tardan would indicate which course their forces were taking toward Earth. He wasn’t going to hold his breath, but as long as they were giving a briefing, he could hope they would at least touch upon something that he considered critical.
“The patrol will take us approximately a month and a half to complete,” the commander said. “At the end of that time, we will resume operations here in this system. After the other teams have finished subduing the areas they are responsible for, high command will set up a new patrol program, and we will begin the second phase of our operations here. Those will be where our allies from the kingdom come into play.”
High command? Then, this wasn’t the invasion commander. Dammit.
When the Tardan turned and looked at Derek, the young officer felt his stomach do a slow roll. Hopefully, he wasn’t going to have to tell them what the kingdom was doing because he had absolutely no idea. Thankfully, the Tardan officer didn’t call on Derek to speak.
